7.3.14

Tom Corbett and Disney Reach Across the stars for This Shattered World

On the heels of Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s wildly successful YA Novel, These Broken Stars, comes the second in the trilogy entitled This Shattered World. Two young adults, caught on opposite sides of a revolutionary war on another planet, find the promise of love inside one another despite the impossibility of their circumstances.

To match the amazing cover of These Broken Stars that Tom Corbett shot last year, Disney tapped him again to recapture the magic. Tom was tasked with capturing the intergalactic love conflict in a single image without giving anything about the highly anticipated plot away. What Disney and the authors decided on was an image of the two lead characters reaching towards one another while being hurdled through space, tossed off an exploding world. Thematically, it’s an elegant idea, but the execution required intense work.

Tom, his team, and the two models headed to a stunt facility in Williamsburg Brooklyn called Hollywood Stunts. The facility was fully outfitted with trampolines, jumping platforms, crash mats, and a handful of stunt instructors to keep everyone safe. After some careful experimentation, Tom and his team realized they would achieve the best results if they shot the models separately. “We had them jumping from a platform to a huge crash mat, jumping towards me,” Tom explains, which is neither easy nor safe without supervision. But, with some emotional direction by Tom, they were able to achieve a dynamic, three dimensional look as if both models were in movement together. “We got it in the end,” Tom recalls with a laugh.

The high-energy day was fun, but not easy on anyone. Tom says, “There were a lot of bumps and bruises on the day, it was a lot of fun, both models were real troopers.” At the end of it, it was all worth it. Especially with B&A artists Don Sumada styling and Gregg Hubbard on hair and make up, everyone wrapped up safe, sound, and looking out of this world.

Despite the energy and desperation with which the couple reaches towards one another, infused throughout is a feeling of high fashion. Tom is known for his spunky, energetic campaigns - a signature style unique to Tom. Recently, Photo District News caught up with Tom to catch some of that magic. The magazine is out now, where he describes "How I Got That Shot" going through the logistics, lighting, camera, and retouching process that complete his final looks. (You can see what results from that polished process with the Tom's newest Tissot ad campaign featuring Steve Stamkos.)